Former guardhouse - African Museum Namur

This former medieval-inspired guardhouse from 1885 is now the African Museum.

It provided access to the Caserne Léopold for the First Regiment of Lansiers, which occupied the entire walled block between Avenue Cauchy and Rue Général Michel, Rue des Bourgeois and Rue du Premier Lanciers.

When Leopold II launched his colonial venture in the last third of the 19th century, many Namur residents responded to his call. Very early on, the Namur pioneers felt the need to come together in an association to better publicize the distant and fascinating lands they had visited. This association was founded in 1910 under the name Society for Colonial Studies and Interests . It was on her initiative that the Museum was founded, which was located in the Halle aux Grains in Namur. Unfortunately, the bombing of 1914 wiped out the entire collection.

Following the enormous impact of the 1925 Colonial Exhibition , a new museum was established in the attics of the Athénée Royal, leading to the creation in 1934 of the National Museum of African Art, located in Grognon. During the Second World War the museum again suffered extensive damage; some of the collections were destroyed or looted.

The residents of Namur did not give up and in 1951 a new museum opened its doors on the other side of the Meuse, under the name Musée colonial scolaire de Jambes. In 1977 the city needed a building ; the collections were stored in boxes spread across various buildings in the city.

In 1984, the collections could finally be housed in the rooms of the guardhouse of the former Leopold barracks.

The African Museum of Namur (MusAfrica) is a rich and astonishing cultural institution in the Belgian museum landscape .

The Museum brings together a collection of African objects , mainly of Congolese origin, including weapons, furniture, everyday objects, musical instruments and ritual objects. It also presents objects of European origin related in particular to the military campaigns conducted during colonization at the end of the 19th century against Arab slave traders on the east coast of Africa, and then, during the two World Wars, against the German army or their allies. Finally, the collections include mineral and animal specimens . The vast majority of the objects held by the museum date from before the period of Congolese independence in 1960.

The museum has a library with more than 20,000 works on Africa and more specifically on Congo, in various languages, and a rich collection of documents, postcards and photographs. It also contains a large number of geographical maps from different periods, covering Africa and Congo, as well as a fine collection of works by Africanist and Congolese painters and sculptors.

Willem Vandenameele